New Big East Conference to Include ‘Catholic 7′ Plus Two More Teams

Seven Catholic schools currently in the Big East will form a new Big East basketball league next season by adding two current Atlantic-10 teams, according to an ESPN report.

Xavier and Butler are expected to join DePaul, Georgetown, Marquette, Providence, St. John's, Seton Hall and Villanova in the new Big East league. Creighton is rumored to be the league's 10th team, but it has yet to join the new conference.

The new Big East conference's games are expected to be part of a new Fox Sports broadcast initiative to be revealed in New York next week, reports ESPN.

The Big East's upcoming conference championship tournament at Madison Square Garden will be the last to include all the traditional powers which have helped build the league's reputation. Pittsburgh, Syracuse and Louisville previously announced they will join the Atlantic Coast Conference for the 2013-14 season. Notre Dame, which had planned on joining the ACC in 2014, may now opt to do so this summer.

Rutgers is headed to the Big 10, while Connecticut, Cincinnati and South Florida have yet to make a conference commitment past this season.